Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 12, 1 December 2014 — Symposium shines light on preserving Hawaiian knowledge [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Symposium shines light on preserving Hawaiian knowledge

By Mary Alice Ka'iulani Milham Unfurled on tables normally spread with books, three 19th-century kapa moe (bark cloth blankets) graced the hushed lobby of Hamilton Library during the second annual Ho'okele Na'auao: A Hawaiian Librarianship Symposium at the University of Hawai'iManoa. The delicate yet resilient kapa, each a multilayered repository of indigenous expertise, seemed to embody

the theme of the day: Preservation of Hawaiian Knowledge. The subtly tinted kapa, one belonging to Princess Ruth

Ke'elikSlani, were from a collection of nine newly restored kapa moe that were damaged in 20 1 1 after a tsunami flooded the basement of Hulihe'e Palace, the seaside Kailua-Kona vacation home of ali'i. The rare kapa were made public courtesy of the Daughters of Hawai'i, who have maintained Hulihe'e Palace as a museum since 1927. Funding for the restoration was through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The Oct. 23 symposium was hosted by Na Hawai'i 'Imi Loa, a UH-Manoa student organization seeking to build the Native Hawaiian presence in the Library and Information Sciences profession. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, primary sponsor of Ho'okele Na'auao (meaning to sail or navigate

toward knowledge), provided funding for the symposium through its 'Ahahui Grant Program. The kapa provided an apt example of the irreplaceable value of indigenous knowledge. For Lynn Davis, head of the UHManoa Library Preservation Department who led the kapa restoration project team, the

hands-on experience is vital. "Everything we work with is teach-

ing us. Everything is different. Every piece has an individual signature and so it's a long process of learning and regaining that, and teaching and passing it on." Keikilani Meyer, a planning committee co-chair with Keali'ikauila Niheu, said, "Unlike traditional librarianship, Hawaiian librarianship encompasses all forms of knowledge in every aspect. The restoration of the kapa moe reinforced the purpose of (Na Hawai'i 'Imi Loa's) mission and Ho'okele Na'auao's objectives." Goals of the symposium - which was planned, coordinated and executed by Na Hawai'i 'Imi Loa students - are increasing the number of Native Hawaiian graduate students in Library and Information Science coming from the Hawai'inuiakea

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Kauwela Novikoff, center, academic adviser of Na Hawai i Imi Loa, discussed the rarely seen kapa moe on display in the lobby of Hamilton Library during the Hawaiian Librarianship Symposium. - Photos: Mary Alice Ka'iulani Milham

School of Hawaiian Knowledge, building a strong collaborative relationship between Hawai'inuiakea and the LIS program and promoting Hawaiian librarianship in the 21st century. In her keynote speech, at the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Manulani Aluli-Meyer set the tone for a fruitful day of indigenous learning by acknowledging an auspicious breeze wafting through the open-air Halau o Haumea pavilion as she came to the podium.

Aluh-Meyer, former associate professor at UH-Hilo and lead teacher for He Waka Hiringa master's pro-

gram in Applied Indigenous Knowledge at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, engaged the audience with "5 Big Ideas" having to do with knowledge and common conceptions and misconceptions, especially with regard to indigenous knowledge. One idea she offered is that words change through time and space. "You've gotta practice the idea that every single principle has a genesis in our kupunas' thinking. Every single practice, has a genesis in our natural world." Another idea Aluli-Meyer brought forward - that ideas themselves change over time. Illustrating her point with a most telling example, she pointed to the once widely accepted notion that "Hawai'i was legally annexed to the United States of America." "Do you understand that that is just a thought?" she challenged. "It didn't happen! We just think it did." " 'Post-colonial' is not a physical place. It's a mental place. We get free in our minds, and watch the accumulated effort and action multiply."

The daylong event included lively panel discussions on Hawaiian methodologies, preserving our culture, and digital preservation, with keynote speeches by Aluli-Meyer, Te Raukura Roa, of the Waikato-Maniapoto tribes of Aotearoa, whose research specializes in traditional Maori chants, and Emil Wolfgramm, a Tongan master storyteller, scholar and

educator. Articulating a sense of urgency to the preservation

theme, Hawaiian methodologies panelist Kaleikoa Ka'eo, associate professor of Hawaiian Studies, Department of Humanities, at UH Maui College, put the issue into stark, unequivocal perspective. "There's no other people in Hawai'i whose kupuna are dug up from the ground, by the hundreds. There's no (other) people whose religious sites are desecrated every day . . . like Mauna Kea. There's no other people in Hawai'i whose familiar lands (are) constantly taken away from them, whose language is on its deathbed," Ka'eo said. "We are an oppressed people. We are a dominated people in our homeland. And we gotta stop and we gotta understand that situation. . . . For me, education is about liberation."® Mary Alice Ka'iulani Milham is a freelance kanaka writer. A former newspaper reporter and columnist from California's Central Coast, she lives in Makaha, O 'ahu.

Kapa-making implements, including in middle row from left, niho 'oki (shark tooth strippers), hohoa (rounded beater), i'e kuku (beaters) and 'ohe kapala (bamboo stamps) helped to illustrate the symposium theme: Preservation of Hawaiian Knowledge.